Lying Bitterly
by SamCyberCat
Summary: Fubuki starts to let the opinions of others affect him, this causes him to make mistakes and end up staying in the American Academia longer than he intended to. Ryo/Fubuki with a vague reference to Ryo/Rabb.


Notes: For the gx_100. Manga 'verse, based just before Ryo, Reggie and Rabb leave to return to Duel Academia. As usual, for the moment I've only read up to chapter 29 of the manga so if anything happens later to prevent this I'm sorry for the inaccuracies.

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Fubuki was not aggravated lightly. And he didn't think something his closest friend could do would annoy him so much. And really, it wasn't something that Ryo did at all – it was something he decided himself for the good of both of them.

It usually wouldn't have irked him, but it seriously felt as if he'd lost respect. News got around fast that the Kaiser had won a tournament that Fubuki had not even entered. People were not viewing them as equals anymore; they viewed Ryo as being the stronger of the two.

Some people were even saying Fubuki couldn't duel. No one had seen him duelling when it came down to it.

He gritted his teeth to this. How could he walk among them knowing they thought that of him?

This had to be remedied, even if only for his personal satisfaction. So he sought out the best duelist that the American academia had to offer: David Rabb.

The duel wasn't widely known. Hopefully it wasn't known by anyone other than Fubuki and Rabb. But Fubuki totally defeated Rabb. It felt… good. Seeing a face that had smirked at him countless times now on the floor before him. As he stared down at Rabb he got more of the wanted satisfaction than he should have done.

Though really that should have been it. As he returned to the room he was staying in the knowledge that he truly was a king should have put to rest any of the ill feeling that had entered him.

It didn't though.

As he saw Ryo in the room already it surfaced again. He glared across at the boy who was packing. Indifferent to any problems Fubuki had with him.

"We're going tomorrow," Ryo said, without looking up, "We're going to return to Duel Academia with Reggie and Rabb."

The taste of bile built up in the back of Fubuki's mouth. Going back with Rabb was probably not the best plan after just defeating him. He tasted a sentence in his head before speaking it out loud.

"I'm not going back."

Ryo's head moved up from the packing and looked at him with concern.

"Why not?" he asked.

"Because…" he should have thought of an excuse before saying so, but the nearest available one presented itself too easily, "There's more girls here who I haven't been with."

It sounded harsher than he'd normally say something of that kind and Ryo picked up on it straight away. He walked over to Fubuki.

"And what's the real reason?"

Fubuki couldn't look up at Ryo at this. There was no way he could put it into words without sounding like he was jealous of Ryo. What person could hate their closest friend for winning a tournament? How could he blame Ryo for doing what he chose not to do himself? How could he explain the duel against Rabb?

He couldn't.

So he didn't bother. He lifted his head up to Ryo, not so much looking at the other before going to kiss his lips, forcing all the anger out into something so gentle.

As he pulled away neither boy said a word. But they didn't need to. For Ryo that explained why Fubuki would not be coming back with him. It worked as an excuse for Fubuki, though Fubuki felt there might be truth to that part of it too.

He walked past Ryo to the door, stopping just before he left to say, "I will see you off tomorrow."

Then he was gone.

He stuck to his word though, and the next day he was there to see the students leave for Duel Academy. He stood a distance away from the rest of the crowd, but within clear view of the others who were boarding. As Ryo saw him there was a small wave and it was returned, but Fubuki's attention was drawn to Rabb, who approached Ryo from behind to put a hand on his shoulder. The American duelist grinned to Fubuki. And Fubuki felt a knot in his throat.

What had he lost?


End file.
